Legal Empowerment

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The Sikh Coalition’s Legal Program defends and safeguards religious freedom. We provide essential legal services to victims of hate crimes, employment discrimination, public accommodations discrimination, profiling and other forms of discrimination. Our scrappy legal team has developed expertise in vindicating the rights of Sikhs whose civil rights have been violated. Our attorneys are routinely asked to speak on this subject by entities like the American Bar Association, and and have litigated with the ACLU, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. We provide assistance 100% free of charge and many times to individuals who would not likely have access to legal services without the Sikh Coalition.

Since the organization's inception, the Sikh Coalition has taken on or provided referrals for over 2,000 matters. At this time, the Sikh Coalition receives about 12-15 requests for legal assistance each month. These requests range from hate crimes to employment discrimination cases, to domestic violence, to immigration issues. Many of these requests also come from clients who speak only or prefer Punjabi and therefore we provide Punjabi legal consults and representation.

The moment an issue reaches our legal team, an initial phone or in-person consultation is scheduled to learn the facts and discuss the matter with the prospective client. These initial consultations can last anywhere from 1-3 hours. Following the conversation, the legal team invests several hours in collecting documents, researching federal and state laws, fact-finding and determining the best next steps for the prospective client.

The legal team typically spends on average between 5-20 hours on each matter brought forward by a prospective client. For cases we cannot take on, this includes educating community members on the law and their rights, researching referrals and explaining their options. For matters we can take on, the legal team devotes even more resources to provide the highest quality of legal service at absolutely no charge to the client. Many of these cases take at least several months to close, but some turn into multi-year federal civil rights lawsuits.

09/02/2018

Project Update

We thank you for your generous support and commitment to helping us serve the Panth!

Legal Work Protects Religious and Immigrant Rights

The Sikh Coalition is proud to announce that a resolution was reached in the December 2016 employment discrimination lawsuit that was filed on behalf of Dr. Jaswinder Pal Singh. The employer, a Tennessee-based medical group, has agreed to work with the Sikh Coalition to improve its employment hiring policies so that all qualified job candidates, regardless of their faith or background, will receive fair and equal treatment. For more details, please click here.

The Sikh Coalition also invested critical resources into defending and protecting Sikh civil rights by growing the legal team. Amrith Kaur joined as Legal Director in September 2017. In the fall Senior Staff Attorney Julian Darwall and Staff Attorney Gieselle Klapper also joined the team. The legal team will continue to provide the Sikh American community with the best free legal resources in areas of hate crime, employment discrimination, bullying, racial profiling and religious rights.

The Sikh Coalition also continues to support other issues by signing on amicus briefs including in support of precedent prohibiting the government from endorsing a particular religion and contesting the cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

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Dear Friends and Family,

There is amazing work happening in the Sikh community everyday. Only through our unwavering commitment to support the change-makers in the Sikh community can such initiatives continue to grow. Read more about this project here - Legal Empowerment

Please consider making a donation to help Legal Empowerment reach its goal. A donation of any amount goes a long way to support the work being done. Thank you for empowering and fueling the work of the Sikh sangat!

With Gratitude,

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